Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-01


PEELED to answer. want TO give you all the in
formation that 1t is In our power. by which you
may understand under what obligations we are
to the Government.
IF we have wrongfully disposed of any of the
assets of the Central Pacific Company that could
possibly affect its relation with the Government,
/ want you TO know it, but where it is a matter
merely between myself and my stockholders
and Directors, and It cannot make any differ
ence in our relations 10 the Government or WI at
the Government may want to claim because of
the lack Of proper vouchers upon which
TO base their five or twenty five per cent l do
not want 10 do it. cannot conceive that the cues
tons you are asking me can possibly affect
our account with the Government as long as we
are willing to pay. If you are not satisfied
with these vouchers we say TO you, say So and
we will account for them as money on hand"
To the question subsequently repeated the
witness declined TO answer, and the Commits
sioners pray In their petition that the witness
also be required by order of the Court to show
cause why he shall not be required TO answer
this interrogatory. Upon the fling of the petit
ton, which was signed and verified by the oath
of the Commissioners, an order was entered as
prayed, that the witness should show cause be
fore the Court on a day designated why he
should not be required 10 appear before them
and answer the interroeatories propouuded
The witness appeared in response to the order
and filed his answer to the petition, in which
he gives at some length the history of the CON
struction of the road of the company, and OF
the difficulties its projectors had to encounter
and mentions the aid in bonds and lands re.
ceivt from the Government and the annual
reports made the Secretary of the Treasury OF
its condition and management. He states that
since its organization, in June, 1861, he has
been its President, and after describing the
manner Of doing business, adds: In this way
have taken part in trans2cting the business oil
the company for period now extending over
(25) twenty-five years, and in point of value ag
gregating upwards of four hundred millions o.
dollars. As the business took place was cog
" sfr,,
pressure of matters more important than mere
detail, as well as the lapse of time am now nc
longer able to recall many of the matters with
which Tas personally so familiar
be also states that by the decision of the SD
preme Court the relation between the United
States and the railroad company is that of cred,
1tor and debtor and that the rights of both are
those sprinying from that relation; that the ex-
animation made by the Commission has not
only extended to the affairs of the Central Pa.
cifc Railroad Company. but has extended to a
searching investigation of the affairs of all the
consolidated and allied companies connected
with that corporation; and that their affairs
have been examined into not only BY the ex-
perts OF the Commission but the Commissioner,
themselves, and their business relations have
been exposed 10 the public and the prying curl
oslty of rlyal business corporations; and that
the Commission insists upon investigating mat
tiers with which the Government has and can
nave no possible concern; that tho DISPOSITION the
company may have made of such portion of its
and never had any interest in, is of this. char
acte; and yet the Commission insist upon an
sWers to questions respecting such disposition
which can have no possible effect upon the re-
lations between the company and the Govern
ment, and can only tend to cast suspicion upon
parties whose names may be mentioned and as
the subject in respect TO which these questions
are propounded are OF an exclusively private
character and in no way affecting the interests
oil the Government, neither the COMPANY nor its
oihcers feel called upon to answer
The respondent also makes this extraordinary
statement that he Is constrained to this course
: as the gentlemen OF the Commission have dis
tinctly and repeatedly avowed in the course OF
their examination that they do not regard them
selves bound in such examination BY the ordi-
nary rules OF evidence, that they would receive
nearSay and eX parte statements surmises sJls-
PIGEONS, and all character of information that
might be called to their attention; and that
during the course of his examination 1t had
more than once transpired that he was exam
lned upon charges made in pleadings and pro
ceedings instituted against the comoany based
upon suspicion and surmises and in many
cases without actual foundation; that questions
had been propounded. and line OF examina-
tlon pursued manifestly prompted by disa ffected
and hostile parties whose aim was more the
pursuit OF personal enmity of a private charac-
ter than the interests of the public at large or
the ends OF Justice: that to answer any of the
questions would necessarily
give rise 10 the implication that all persons
whose names may be mentioned in the cues
tons to which answers are declined are guilty
OF the acts OF commission which is implied in
the pare asking o! the questions that in his
testimony he had said in substance and now
repeats 1t, tnat he never corrupted or attempted
10 corrupt any member of the Legislature or
any member OF Congress or any public official
ana never authorized any agent to do so: that ali
the claims covered by the vouchers referred 10
have received not only the approval OF the Board
OF Directors of the Central Pacific Railroad Com
pany, but likewise the approval of the stock
hlf all l.
could in anywise legally and equitably be af.
fected by the disbursements embraced in them
were fully satisfied Herewith and have ratified
and approved of the same. And in addition the
states that in the conduct and man.
agement of business OF the magnitude of the
Central Pacific Railroad and the various corner
atoms consolidated and allied Herewith. il is
impossible not from time to time TO have to do
business involving disbursements which every
dictate OF business prudence Will not admit OF
being made public; that arrangements of a pri-
vate character. names of parties not publicly
known and the disclosure of which could only
result in defeating the ends in view and expos
ing the persons so named to suspicion or ohio
guy, would forbid making the same public.
either upon the archives ofthe company or be-
lore public commission that this course of
policy is not only sanctioned by ordinary ex-
per1ence in business life, but the Government of
the United States and the Government Of the
STATE OF Hahiorula, as well as the Government
OF Inc City and County of San Francisco, sever
ally, allow TO their chiefmagistrates money, the
investment OF which Is committed exclusively
10 their Judgment and discretion, and for which
detailed vouchers are never required
The respondent further adds that the Com
mission had deemed 1t its duty to PROFOUND
questions involving criminality on his part and
on the part of the persons whose names
were mentioned in such questions, answers
to which, for the reasons stated ne has
felt constrained TO decline to make that acting
not only on his own behalf but on behalf of
those whose Interests as stockholders of the Cen
Poi n
his charge, he feels bound to decline to answer
them unless by the Court he is otherwise d.
rected.
The purport of the answer of the respondent
is that the Government has no legal interest in
the matters in relation to which the interroga-
tories are propounded; that he has answered
the interroSatories so far as it was in
ms power TO do so, not having any
recollection of the items for which the vouchers
were made up, at this distant day from the
transactions to which they relate and that ne
is shielded by the Constitution from answering
questions implying crlminality in his conduct
and calculated to cast aspersions upon others.
The District Attorney of the United States,
acting for the Commissioners, moves for per
emptory order upon the witness TO compel him
to answer interrogatories notwithstanding his
answer to the order to show cause
The motion for q peremptory order upon the
witness TO answer the Undergraduates pro
pounded by the Railway Commission has been
fully argued, and everything which could be
United States Attorney, either in oral or printed
arguments. In resisting the motion counsel OF
the respondent have not confined themselves to
a discussion Of the propriety and necessities OF
the interrogatories. and the sufficiency of the
answers given By him, but they have assailed
the validity of the Act creating the Commission,
so far as II authorizes an examination into the
private affairs of the Directors officers and EN-
ployes OF the Central Pacific Railroad Company
and confers the right 70 invoke the power of the
Federal Courts in aid OF the general investiga-
ton directed
Impressed with the gravity of the questions
presented we have given to them all the cousii-
Grafton in our power.
The Pacific Railway Commission created
under the Act of congress of March 3, 1887. is
not judicial body; it possesses no Judicial
powers; 1t can determine no right to the Govern
ment or of the COMPANIES whose affairs it inyes-
tigates. Those rights will remain the subject OF
judicial inquiry and determination as fully as
though the Commission had never been created,
and in such inquiry its report TO the President OF
Its nation Will not be even admissible as eyi-
dence OF any Of the matters investigated Il is
mere Board of Inquiry, directed to obtain in
formation upon certain matters and report the
result of its investigation to the President who
is to lay the same before Congress. In the pro.
gress of its investigations and in furtherance OF
them it is in terms authorized to invoke the aid
ofthe Courts ofthe United States in recurring the